Amber Peat’s death may have been self harming which went too far says mother

The inquest into the death of tragic Mansfield teenager Amber Peat today (Monday February 13) heard evidence from her mother and stepfather.
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Amber’s mum Kelly Peat paid tribute to her lovely little girl who had a “completely out there “ sense of humour who was very inquisitive and a lot of fun.

Assistant coroner Laurinder Bower asked Mrs Peat about the events leading up to her daughter going missing.

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Amber’s body was found in bushes on June 2 near her home in Westfield Lane, Mansfield after a whole community mounted a search for her.

Amber Peat.Amber Peat.
Amber Peat.

Kelly told the inquest on May 30 2015 when she went missing Amber had been asked to clean a cool box.

It was the day after the family had returned from a holiday in Cornwall.

She told the inquest that the family had shared chores when they got home.

“I said go into the kitchen it won’t clean itself.

“She was just staring at me.

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“She just kept repeating “Mum, Mum, Mum” I want to talk to you.

“I went into the living room at that point and shut the door - we heard the door shut.”

“She was obviously angry, I’m not sure at what.”

She said she put the washing down and went outside but her daughter was gone.

It was the last time she had seen her alive.

Her 13 year old daughter had gone missing with no telephone, little money and no food or drink.

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She said she had gone out and checked the water and oil in her car and then had driven with the family to the nearby Tesco and then a car wash.

“I wasn’t really worried at that point.” She said.

They had taken in turns to go to the houses of people Amber knew to go look for her.

But it wasn’t until 12.56 am on May 31- seven and a half hours after she went missing that they had called the police.

Mrs Peat said her daughter had gone missing before.

She said: “I wanted to give her time to wind down.”

On reflection it had been too long to leave her.

The coroner asked if she believed her daughter had the capability to form the intention of taking her own life.

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She said:”I don’t think she would have understood the consequences. She was extremely bright but emotionally she was still a pretty young girl at heart.”

She added:”I think when she left she was a bit angry and I think her intention was to maybe mark herself to show her friends.

“There was a lot of competition for self harm and kids were cutting themselves . I think she had every intention to come home.”

In his statement to police on June 1 20015 Amber’s stepfather Danny Peat, said Amber had been “in a mood all day. She had ‘got it on her’.

He added: “She has been giving Kelly attitude all day.”

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Summing up his evidence the coroner questioned if he was claiming Amber had been dishonest, made false accusations and he was unable to control her.

He said he didn’t want to use that kind of language, but said she had told lies.

She was an attention seeker, but he said these incidents had just been ‘blips’ and they had generally got on well. He could not shed any light on why she would want to take her life in 2015.

He said the only things he had done to discipline Amber when she misbehaved was to ask her to wash the pots or not allowed her to use her mobile phone or tablet.

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There was nothing to explain shy she ran away or did what she did.

He had no idea why she was lying and that was why the couple had been asking for help from professionals.

The coroner questioned why when he had nor been in the family home Amber had not run away.

Amber told teachers at Queen Elizabeth school Mansfield she had been punished and humiliated by her stepfather in the months leading up to her death.

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They said Amber had turned up to school saying he had made her wear grey jogging bottoms to make her look ridiculous.

He said he had no knowledge of what had happened and had not been there.

Kelly Peat earlier told the inquest Amber had been getting ready to go to school and her school trousers had been muddy. She said she told Amber to find something else and her daughter had picked the jogging bottoms herself.

“She wouldn’t take them off she could be headstrong like that,” she said.

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He said Amber had lied when she said he had made her get out of bed and stay up until the early hours after doing chores.

Kelly Peat told the inquest she had been asked to wash the pots after tea and it was time for bed. Danny had told her she had missed something and she came back downstairs. “That was it,” she said.

On another occasion she said she had been made to take her things to school in a carrier bag as punishment. He had not told her to do that either, he said.

Kelly peat explained that Amber’s bag had been broken and she had told her just to grab anything for that day - it had not been a punishment.

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She said Amber was capable of putting on a performance and telling outright lies at times.

She said: I don’t know why she would tell a lie. “ When I asked her why, sometimes she would deny saying it and when she admitted it she would just say “I don’t know.”

She added:“For making allegations she was spoken to and what the consequences might be. We always had this thing where we ended with a clean slate.”

Mr Peat said he had never raised his voice to his stepdaughter.

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“I think Amber had problems being told what to do by males,” he said.

He would ask her to do something. She would refuse and he would ask Kelly to speak to her.

During cross examination Amber’s biological father said to Mr Peat:”I think you have approached this inquest as a joke.

“Making Amber wash dishes all he time - did you ever consider her wellbeing?”

Mr Peat replied I was involved in Amber’s life - I saw her as a daughter. I considered her wellbeing all the time.”

The inquest continues.